BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children

Subject: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: Amergin
Date: 27 Oct 10 - 10:11 PM

Apparently, the State of Indiana, due to budget cuts, has been telling parents of disabled children, to abandon them at homeless shelters, when they (the parents) are no longer able to care for them at home. The story here: Indiana Parents Told to Drop Disabled Kids At Shelters

Now, I am sure that some people around here would think this is a good option open to parents, but in reality it is absolutely disgusting. I have a cousin who is autistic and he is, (thanks to the State of Idaho, the Sandpoint School District, and a very supportive family) is now functional. However, if he was not, and there was no budget, and his parents were told to abandon him, when they could no longer care for him. I think many members of my family would be loading their rifles and marching down to Boise in protest. Is that what needs to be done to get this changed? Open, armed rebellion?

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 27 Oct 10 - 10:45 PM

"...I am sure that some people around here would think this is a good option open to parents..."

That's a pretty gratuitous statement if I've ever seen one, here. Whom do you think, among us would find that option good?

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: Janie
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 01:43 AM

Well said, John.

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 01:20 PM

Read the article.

"Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for the Family and Social Services Administration, the umbrella agency that includes the bureau, said suggesting homeless shelters is not the agency's policy and workers who did so would be disciplined."

Tempest in a teapot!

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 02:09 PM

The "State of Indiana" has not been doing anything like this...nor has the dept. referenced. 'Maybe' some employee has said something similar, but as noted, it is NOT policy.

....however, the article does point at a serious and growing problem and a real issue for a free society when budgets are so strained.
How DO we set priorities for social services ... and when money IS available, how can we hire & train people competent to deal with these kids? I, frankly, cannot answer either question.

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 02:23 PM

If, in a rich country, budgets are "so strained" that adequate help is not available for people with disabilities I would question whether it deserves to be called "a free society".

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: GUEST,999
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 05:35 PM

Fastest way to raise money for kids is to stop fighting wars. It`s a waste of cash to get involved in wars, certain companies excepted.

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 05:56 PM

Amen 999!!

(but I don't really think budget constraints are a defining characteristic of a 'free society'. My point was (or would have been if I had typed all the disclaimers) that the need for social services tend to grow faster than they can easily be met, and that dividing a shrinking budget is never easy when police & fire protection is also being cut and infrastructure...etc. is in trouble.)

I DO think defense spending could easily be cut without serious security problems.

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 06:22 PM

What I meant was that failing to provide that kind of help is equivalent to depriving a minority unjustly of liberty - and that's a mark of a society that is unfree.

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 08:44 AM

I believe this is a variation other states have allowed (some temporarily) on the notion that an unwanted baby can be left at a hospital anonymously, instead of leaving it to die in a trashcan..... "We" all seem to LIKE that option, but somebuddy didn't think thru the consequences one and ended up getting teenagers abandoned at ERs until they fixed their mess.

Where we see the insanity in today's "instantaneous culture" is not usually where the story has started.... or relevant to how it can be unf*cked. This one bears a deeper look to see what a few good people may have thought they were trying to do-- which simply has gone horribly wrong.

And if that IS what has happened, "they" will need help to fix it, not condemnation for trying a new idea.


We have a thread here running now all about brilliant ideas-- from people who do not have to write them into law or housing code or electrical code. Imagine the mess WE could make.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: State of Indiana-Abandon Your Children
From: GUEST,999
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 12:09 PM

Well said, Susan. However, have you ever noticed that law doesn`t have to be as convoluted as we`ve made it. For example, the Code of Hammurabi had 282 laws with which to govern. God himself did it in ten. The complications are due to the exceptions, often driven by greed and the desire to screw one`s fellow humans.